Games of 2018: Shooters

SHOOTAS! BANG! The List God was one day from retirement! Well PENSION THIS because the List God has returned and the List God is packing heat! We're talking laser blasters, we're talking Kalashnikovs, we are talking about AI so dumb it sees a gun and runs towards it. That's right, Nazi lemmings, come to me! You feel the PEW? You feel the endothermic shudder running through your flesh as software constructs collapse in a hyper-real fashion? THE LIST GOD DOESN'T GIVE A DAMN WHAT YOU FEEL.

The List God is here to blast through the finest shooter games of 2018 and chew bubblegum.

But the List God is all out of bubblegum.

Anthem

PlayStation 4 / Xbox One / PCBioware, 2018Anthem, the next big game from Bioware, is a squad based online third person online multiplayer RPG shooter, but as we have lots of categories to handle here, let’s simplify that to shooter. You go out in space suits with your friends, taking on roles in a team, with the intent of surviving whatever you find out in the world. We’ve seen very little, but seems certain that Bioware is gunning for a bit of that delicious Destiny pie.

Aperion Cyberstorm

Switch, Wii U, PC, Xbox OneApriori Digital, early 2018Aperion Cyberstorm is a 1-5 player, twin stick, bullet hell shooter which can be played with multiple players either as a series of campaign levels, as a co-op survival wave experience, or competitively in a versus mode. The game also features a number of accessibility options, including automating some controls so players can focus on others.

Battalion 1944

PC Bulkhead Interactive, 2018 Modern shooters a bit too soft for you? Want something hardcore do we sonny? Check this shit: a 5v5 WWII shooter that claims itself to be the refined and modernised heir of classic Counter-Strike. No levelling curve, no nukes after 25 kills – just you and some buddies, five bad dudes, and one-tap headshots.

Consortium: the Tower

PC Interdimensional Games | LinkConsortium: The Tower is basically Dishonored with less of a budget, which is no bad thing! Set on the gigantic Churchill Tower, you start at the top (which is a nice change of pace) then work your way down, either slaughtering everything in sight or talking to and working with over 100 NPC characters. The developers even promise you can miss core story beats and the game will account for it.

Crackdown 3

Xbox One, PCMicrosoft, Spring 2018 Of course it's a shooter! Although it’s been in development hell for years, in theory, Crackdown 3 is coming out in 2018. A shooter where you can jump super high, destroy environments procedurally and fight other players PVP, Crackdown 3 is an ambitious title that will hopefully, finally, surface this year.

Days Gone

PS4Sony Bend, 2018 Sony seems to really like the idea of gruff bearded men roaming a post-apocalyptic America, where zombie like creatures roam and survival is a struggle. Maybe it was the success of The Last of Us that sparked it, but Days Gone seems to be going for a similar genre and tone, with more of a focus on shooter mechanics and biker culture.

Deep Rock Galactic

PC Ghost Ship Games, 2018 A co-op shooter with different classes, surely the selling point for this one is simple: SPACE DWARVES. Not just that, but they're fighting ALIEN BUGS! Procedurally-generated caverns brimming with fine treasures are matched up to a tunnelling system that lets you outmanoeuver your mandibled foes. Nothing to dislike here.

DONT PLAY THIS GAME.EXE

PC 'Unknown', 2018 Ooooh it's so edgy! The developer's name is 'unknown' but it's got a line through it! OMG WE R IN DA MATRIX. Despite all the arty frippery around it, this looks like as straight-up a shooter as they come. There's a katana, which could be considered a redeeming feature.

Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain

PS4Yuke’s, 2018 While most Earth Defense Force games are eccentric shooters themed around blowing away ridiculous numbers of insectoid enemies in ludicrous ways, Iron Rain seems to take a slightly more serious look at this premise. The visuals are a little more impressive, the challenge is a little higher, and the tone is a bit more grounded. Kinda.

Escape from Tarkov

PC Battlestate Games, 2018 A S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-inspired shooter that pits two factions of players against each other, this feels a bit like the good old days of survival games: one-shot combat, elaborate weapon customisation, inventory management, and the threat of losing all your gear if and when you croak. Sounds like a good time to me!

Far Cry 5

PS4, Xbox One, PCUbisoft, March 27, 2018 Set in a fictional middle America town of religious, overly-patriotic individuals, you as the player have to fight your way into a town that believes it is entirely self-righteous, and get out in one piece. A very different setting to past games in the series, this is nevertheless at its core an action-packed shooting adventure.

Gal Gun 2

PS4, SwitchInti Creates, Q1 2018 The Gal Gun series of games are shooters, but not how you normally imagine them. You use a love gun to shoot shoot girls in their “love spots” until they fall madly in love with you because they’re infected by ghosts or something, then have to suck the ghosts up with a vacuum that might also remove the girl's skirts, then you have to tap and rub their bodies for even more "plot" reasons. Yeah, we don’t know how that pitch got taken seriously either, but it’s a shooter that’s coming out this year.

Hunt: Showdown

PC Crytek, 2018 A mix of horror and battle royale, five teams of two set out to hunt Lovecraftian abominations. There are boss monsters to kill, other hunters might steal your prize, and death is permanant. But perhaps Chthulu will watch over his chosen ones...

Left Alive

PS4 / Xbox One / PC Square Enix, 2018 Artist Yoji Shinkawa gives this 'SURVIVAL ACTION SHOOTER' its Metal Gear vibe, and sure enough it's jam-packed full of mechs! Set in a war-torn city filled with killer robots, where resources are scarce, the campaign features three different character playthroughs. It's also apparently part of the Front Mission franchise.

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries

PC Piranha Games, December 2018 A combination shooter and tactical strategy game, MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries will feature fully destructible environments and a focus on building up your own small army of mechs.

Metroid Prime 4

SwitchNintendo, 2018 While we know next to nothing about Metroid Prime 4 itself, the series is known for combining exploration, puzzle solving, and shooter based combat to create a genre formula unique enough to have an entire sub-genre of games partially named after it. We can expect secrets, non linear environments, and plenty of shooty bangs.

Metal Gear: Survive

PS4, Xbox One, PCKonami, 2018 The first Metal Gear game released following Hideo Kojima’s departure from Konami, Survive makes use of many of the mechanics and systems from Metal Gear Solid V, but sends players through a portal into a hellish world to... erm, survive and fend off hellish humanoid monsters.

Metro Exodus

PS4, Xbox One, PCDeep Silver, 2018Metro Exodus continues the Metro series long history of dropping you into inhospitably cold winter worlds full of dangerous creatures and even more dangerous people. Exodus seems to see players venture more to the surface of its world, and with it encounter new challenges on their way.

Mothership

Overkill's The Walking Dead

PC Overkill, Autumn 2018 A 4 player co-op action survival game, Overkill's take on the franchise focuses on staying alive in DC while zombies constantly try to feast on your brains

Past Cure

PS4, Xbox One, PCPhantom 8, February 23rd 2018 In Past Cure, you play a former elite soldier who can, for some reason, use telekinesis and manipulate time after years of experiments. In time-honoured tradition, he now has to kill a bunch of people to keep himself alive.

Quake Champions

PCBethesda, 2018Quake Champions, the first main entry in the series since Quake 4 back in 2005, shifts focus towards being a hero shooter, where your selection of playable character has a drastic effect on the abilities you’ll have at your disposal.

RICO

PCGround Shatter, TBARICO is a buddy-cop action first person shooter with co-op support where you play as a pair of loose cannon police officers, given twenty-four-hours to crack a big case. Kick down doors, shoot people, blow stuff up and catch the criminal in big, flashy action-movie style.

State of Decay 2

Xbox One, PCUndead Labs, 2018 Sequel to the 2013 original, State of Decay 2 is an open world zombie survival third-person shooter, where up to four friends can co-operatively explore the world, trying to make good choices whilst surviving an onslaught of creatures intent on eating you.

Strange Brigade

PC, PS4, Xbox One Rebellion, 2018 A pulpy 1930's co-op shooter, Strange Brigade tasks players with fighting horror movie monsters to save the world from an undead army. It might not sound like the most original game out there, but the jolly British vibe and OTT style make this a blast with friends.

Superhot: Min Control Delete

PC SUPERHOT Team, 2018 This standalone expansion is currently in Early Access and adds a procedural element to the whole 'world moves when you do' jazz of the original. A roguelike strain means every level is generated with different abilities, weapons and enemies, every time.

Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet

PS4, Xbox One, PCBandai Namco, 8th February 2018 Traditionally an RPG series, Sword Art Online takes place inside a fictional VR video game, where players live out second lives. The original series involved people being hooked up so if they died in the game they would die in real life, but that premise fell away pretty fast. In Fatal Bullet, players take part in an online shooter tournament, while trying to solve a larger mystery.

System Shock

PC Nightdive Studios, 2018 Much more than just a visual update, this remake of System Shock includes level redesigns, new enemies, and items remodelled to better fit the tone of the game.

Warhammer Vermintide 2

PC Fatshark, Q1 2018 A co-op melee and shooty brawler, the original is one of the better wave-based blasters around so you'd hope for something even better. Among other things, the sequel adds multiple career paths and a new heroic deeds system.